


Right back where we started out

by ravelqueen



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bitter-sweet, College era, Friendship, Gen, MIT, Pre-Canon, and I mean by implied really just one tiny line, implied non-requited Harold/Nathan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2018-01-16 09:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1342117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravelqueen/pseuds/ravelqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harold comforts Nathan after a break-up while they are still at MIT</p>
            </blockquote>





	Right back where we started out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [tumblr prompt](http://derekplaysviola.tumblr.com/post/80079442173/64-seeking-solace-harold-finch-nathan-ingram) from kingcarp: Nathan, Harold: Seeking Solace.
> 
> Sorry for the obvious skipping of what Harold is coding. I know next to nothing about coding in general and literally nothing about what you could do in the 80's ^^

Harold stopped typing for a second when he heard the crash. He waited until he could hear the sound of Nathan picking himself off the floor, let out a quiet sigh and continued.

"Heyyy-a Harold!" Nathan shouted, stumbling through his door, "Whatcha doing?"

"The same thing you should be doing, the assignement for Mr. Stetcher’s class. Please don’t sit on that." he added quickly when he saw Nathan preparing to fall onto his bed. He could smell the alcohol on his clothes from where he sat and he really didn’t relish having to change the sheets before going to bed.

"You are so cold!" Nathan crowed, stumbling closer to him.

"If I had wanted my bed to smell like alcohol, I would have come to the party with you." he replied, not looking away from his screen.

"Well, why didn’t you?" Nathan had managed to get rid of his coat and was holding onto his shoulders.

"Because, as I said, I wanted to finish -"

Nathan snorted, "Oh, don’t give me that bull crap. You finished that assignement in the 10 minutes of class after the prof gave it to us. Just like you always do. I’m pretty sure," he squinted at the screen, moving closer, "-that Stetcher did not actually ask us to programm a new algorithm to do, huh, this looks like a communication system?" he sighed and shook his head when Harold turned off the screen before he could take a better look at his coding, "Why didn’t you come with us? It’d be fun."

Harold moved the chair back apruptly, sending Nathan stumbling back.

"Maybe I just didn’t look forward to watching you and Macy make out for an entire night again." he said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Oh." Nathan replied, sounding…sad?

He turned around and for the first time really looked at his roommate, at the way his eyes were too glassy to just be an effect of the alcohol and the way he was twisting his fingers.

"Oh Nathan," he said softly, "What happened?"

"Nothing!", Nathan replied brightly. Too brightly. He sighed and gave him a look. In his experience, if he just waited, Nathan would eventually spill.

"It’s just that Macy and I, we kinda broke it off tonight?" Nathan said, trying to smile, but it kept sliding off his face. "It’s not a big deal. It just wasn’t working out."

_He has always been terrible at hiding his feelings_ , he thought, gathering Nathan up in his arms. It only took a few seconds for Nathan to relax into the embrace and to hug back.

"It’s really not that bad," he mumbled into his shoulder, but the way Nathan’s fingers tightened in his sweater told him enough, "It was just, surprising, and I, uh, hadn’t thought it was going that badly, you know."

"I know," Harold replied, running a soothing hand over Nathan’s back. This wasn’t the first break up he had to console Nathan over and it wouldn’t be the last. He should have suspected, really, because normally Nathan wouldn’t get drunk on a week night and he definitely had more consideration than to bother him when he did.

He manouvered Nathan into the couch by his bed, and just held him, while the whole story spilled out. Macy thought Nathan didn’t spend enough time with her, that he didn’t really care about what went on with her, that he thought he was better than her, because she studied political science, instead of having a "real major".

"And then! and then she said: _If you would give me the same amount of attention and admiration as you give to that four-eyed friend of yours, maybe there wouldn’t be a problem._ " Nathan had at that point managed to talk himself out of sadness and into indignation. "So I told her that if she was going to talk about my friends this way, that there was nothing more to say."

For a moment he didn’t comprehend it and then he couldn’t stop a small smile from forming, “So you broke up with your girlfriend because of me?” he asked, breaking into Nathan’s next tirade, which pulled him up short.

"Well," Nathan said, looking somewhat surprised, "she was basically ready to call it quits anyway, but I guess I did." Nathan turned in the embrace, clasping his hands and continued entreatingly "But I meant what I said Harold. You are my best friend and if she can’t appreciate you the way you deserve, screw her."

For a moment he allowed himself to be a tiny bit wistful, looking at Nathan’s smiling face, at the way they were sitting close together on the couch, thighs touching, but then he shook himself out of it.

It was better this way, _they_ were better this way.

"Well, " he said, "I guess if you’ve made this big a sacrifice for me, the least I could do is show you what I’ve been working on."

"Really?! You would?" Nathan asked, still just as surprised and amazed every time Harold allowed him to see his work. Because he understood, better than anyone else Harold had ever met, what it meant. That it still was a struggle for him to open up the tiniest bit. And that's why Nathan still greeted every instance of Harold's trust not with entitlement but with such an open and honest joy. It was the reason why Harold didn't feel any hesitation in walking over to his work station, turning on the screen again.

He smiled at his best friend, his only confidant and said: "Really. Who else would I tell all my secrets?" 


End file.
